Hi!!!!! This is my first fanfiction ever, so please don't be too hard on me. Disclamer: I don't own anything!!! Feel free to review and tell me anything that you think needs improvement.

CHAPTER 1 The New Kid

It was 3:00 on a Friday afternoon in May of 1963. A moving truck sat in front of a blue house. The truck pulled out as the last box was placed on the ground with more boxes. An older man with balding black hair who stood about six foot two bent down and picked up three boxes and carried them into the house. The only other person in the yard stood there for a second before lifting her own boxes and heading into the house. She had short black hair that was cut like a boys. She stood about five-five and had blue-gray eyes. She wore a gray T-shirt with a gray baseball jersey over it and old jeans with a few small tears in them.

She took the box into the house and sat it down in the hallway. The older man, her father, had seated himself in the recliner.

"Bo." He yawned. "Why don't you go ahead and bring the rest of the boxes in. You take your stuff to your room and just leave my stuff and everything else in the hall."

"Yes sir." Bo sighed and headed back out.

She scanned the boxes. There was only about fifteen left. She sighed again and went to the boxes that didn't belong to her. She picked up two at once and nearly stumbled under the weight.

"What's in these things?" she muttered, "Rocks?"

She struggled to the door and laid them just inside the door. She then headed back and took two more boxes. It seemed to her that these two were even heavier. She hurried as fast as she could and placed them inside the door. After five more trips, she had finally finished taking her father's stuff in.

"Now for my stuff." She said aloud.

She walked out to her boxes. She then bent down and picked up one of the boxes and turned to the house. After three trips, she had carried all of her stuff to her new room. She looked around her room as she sat on her bed. The room was a dark shade of blue and held only a dresser, the bed, a nightstand, and a closet. She sighed and started unpacking. She put all of her clothes, which consisted only of T-shirts and jeans and a couple of one pieced bathing suits and some shorts, in the closet and some in the dresser. She then opened the remaining boxes and pulled everything out. First she took out her baseball trophies and placed them on top of the dresser. She placed her baseball card collection beside them with pictures of her family on the small night stand beside the bed. She took out her baseball bat and glove and placed them, along with a few baseballs, in a corner of the room near the door. .

Once she was done unpacking, she picked up her bat, glove, and ball and walked out of the house.

"I'm gonna go walk around, Dad!" she called.
The only answer she received was a grunt.

She shrugged and headed out. She didn't know where she was going. After a few minutes she ended up at a drugstore called Vincent's Drugstore. She kept walking for a few minutes until she came upon a sandlot.

"Perfect." She said aloud as she walked into the deserted baseball field.

She placed her bat on the ground, put on her glove, and threw the ball against the fence and catching it. She had been doing that for about five minutes when she heard boy's voices approaching. She ignored the noise and continued throwing the ball against the fence.

"Hey you!" a boy's voice called out from behind her. "What do you think your doing?"

She turned around and faced them. There were eight boys standing in front of her. All had wet hair, leading her to believe that they had been swimming.

"What's it look like I'm doing?" she snapped.

The boy's eyes widened in surprise.

"You're a girl!" one of them exclaimed. He was fat and had freckles all over his face.

"Really." She said sarcastically, "I didn't know that."

"Get out of here!" the same boy ordered.

"Make me, Pork chop." She said, removing her glove.

"Have it your way." The fat boy took a step forward.

"Take another step and I promise you," she threatened quietly, "You won't walk for a week."

That caused the boy to stop. Whether in surprise or fear, Bo wasn't sure.

"You think I'm scared of you, little girl?" the fat boy asked laughing.

The boys behind him laughed, except two. She took notice of them before replying. One was small with dark blonde hair. The other was tall, a few inches taller then herself, with black hair and tanned skin.

"You should be fat boy." She replied after studying the two who didn't laugh.

"What are you even doing here?" the same boy asked.

"Knitting a sweater." She replied sarcastically, "What's it look like I'm doing? I'm playing baseball."

That earned her a few chuckles, mainly from the two who hadn't laughed at her.

"You're a girl!" one of the others exclaimed. He wore black glasses she noticed, "Girl's can't play baseball!"

"Well this girl does." She replied easily.

"Really?" the tall one spoke up for the first time. "Let's see how good you really are."

He stepped forward and she quickly sized him up. Just by the way he carried himself, she could tell that he would be the best out of all of them.

"All right." She agreed. "What do you have in mind."

"Take you're positions guys." He told the boys behind him who quickly obeyed. Turning back to her he added, "Go bat."

She nodded, picked her bat up and headed to where the fat boy was playing catcher. She got in her position and waited for the pitcher to throw the ball. She noticed that he was colored, not that she cared. A person was a person to her.

"Let's do this!" the boy called from behind her. "Play ball!" Quieter, he added, "This should be an easy out."

With that, he pulled his face guard down and bent down. Bo waited for the pitch. When the boy pitched it, he threw it as hard as he could. Bo easily hit it past the outfield and into a person's backyard. She dropped her bat and ran around the bases quickly, making her homerun. The boy's just stared at her.

"But you're a girl!" the one behind her, the fat one, exclaimed. "No girl has ever done that! Heck, only Benny and Smalls have ever done that!"

"It's called practice Porky." Bo told him sarcastically.

The boy's in the field ran over to where she stood at home.

"Good job!" they all said.

The tall one stepped forward and held his hand out.

"Benny Rodriguez." He introduced himself.

She shook his hand and said, "Bo Evans."

"Bo?" he asked, raising his eyebrows and dropping her hand. "Isn't that a boy's name."

"It's short for Beauregard." Bo explained. "My parents wanted a boy and when they had me, they went ahead and gave me a boy's name."

"This is Hamilton Porter, we call him Ham." Benny introduced the other boys. The fat boy spit at his name. "This is Scotty Smalls." Scotty smiled, he was the other one who hadn't laughed at her. "Timmy and Tommy Timmons." Two boys also spit. "Alan McClennan, we call him Yeah-Yeah." He spit. "Michael Palledorous, we call him Squints." The boy with glasses spit. "And Kenny DeNunez." The pitcher spit.

She nodded once at each of them.
"You new around here?" Squints asked.

"What makes you think that?" Bo asked sarcastically. "I just moved into a blue house about ten minutes from here."

"Looks like we're gonna be neighbors then." Benny spoke up. "Smalls here lives next door to you and I live across the street."

Smalls smiled again and she smiled back. Suddenly she frowned.

"What time is it?" she asked.

Tommy looked at his watch and announced, "4:30."

"4:30." Timmy repeated.

"Crap!" Bo exclaimed. "My dad is gonna kill me!"

Without another word, she ran to get her stuff and ran out of the sandlot.

The boys stared after her, before returning to playing baseball.

Bo ran as fast as she could and got home in no time.
"I'm home Dad!" she shouted.

She noticed that her dad had removed the boxes from the hallway.

"Where have you been?" her dad shouted, walking into the hallway.

"I was at this old sandlot." She answered. "I was just tossing a ball back and forth against the fence."

"You could have told me you were going." Her dad snarled, stepping forward.

Bo took a step back and ran into the closed door.

"I did Dad." She gulped, "I'm sorry. I thought you heard me."

Without warning, her dad slapped her with his open palm across her face.

"I really should hurt you," he snarled as she stared up at him, her hand on the reddening mark, "But I'm to tired too." He turned away and added sarcastically, "Wait outside until I calm down. Wouldn't want to hurt you."

Bo quickly scrambled outside and sat on her front porch. A few tears escaped her eyes, but she held them back as she looked up. Her face felt warm where he had slapped her, but it didn't feel to red. She heard laughter from down the street and as she looked up she saw two boys. It was Scotty and Benny. The two separated and Scotty headed to the pink house next to hers.

"Hi Bo!" he called waving.
She waved back as he went inside his house. Bo looked back across the street and saw Benny walking over. She stood up, glanced nervously behind her, and walked to the gate to meet him.
"Uh, hi." He said nervously.

"Hey, Benny wasn't it."

He nodded.
"Look," he said, "I know you don't really know us, but you're a really good player from what little we saw and I was wondering if you'd want to join our team."

His question startled her, but she quickly regained her composure.

"Sure!" she agreed.

"Cool." He smiled. "Meet us at the Sandlot in the morning at eight. If you get up early enough me and Smalls will walk with you."

"What do you mean early enough?" she asked.

"Well," he replied nervously, "Seein' as how you're a girl I figured you might sleep in."

Her eyes narrowed as she spoke. "I'll have you know, Benny. I wake up at seven normally. The latest I have ever slept is eight."

"Oh." Benny said simply. "Well see ya in the morning."

"See ya." She said and turned back to sit on the porch.

Benny crossed the street and went into his house. Bo sighed as she went back into her house.